Early Evidence That You Were A Nerd

Looking back, what were some of the first signs that you weren't like all the other kids? Obviously we're all trekkies so you can share stories of watching Trek early on. But it can be other things too, since we're all different sorts of nerds.

I think one of the first signs for me was the fact that I chose to sit around and read all the encyclopedias. But then that wasn't enough, and I would assign myself a subject and write up a report on it in my notebook. I remember a nice summer day where my sister complained "She's inside reading the encyclopedia again!" I made my way through all of the books in the house, whether they were age-appropriate or not. For weeks once I pondered why my parents had a book about killing mockingbirds. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I finally opened the book and read it, only to discover that it wasn't about killing birds at all!

When my great grandma gave me an alarm clock I took it apart to see what was inside -and to play with those parts...

The best toys at my grandparents place were grandmas calculators (this was in an age before micro-processors and ICs so calculators were big mechanical things) and typewriters -not because I had a lot to calculate or write, just because I really liked those machines

As I grew older and LEGO didn't do it all for me any more (was brilliant to build phasers and tricorders with when us suburban kids were playing "Enterprise" though) I started 'playing with' electronics; the transistor (and later: ICs) were brilliant toys

Yeah, I'm one of those geeks that originally build their own very first computer themselves
There was no such thing as an OS in those days though.

I was a voracious reader. I read everything I could get my hands on, and there were never enough books. My mother used to tell me "you've got your nose stuck in a book! You should go out and play! You're missing out on life!" which I wholly disagree with. Reading books let me live lives that no child my age could have lived, and reading about Tom Sawyer was much more enjoyable than going outside to play "John, throw the basketball back if it goes out of bounds."

I am not sure if I ever regonised myself as a nerd while I was growing up. I know I was a tomboy but no-one seem to have a problem with that least of all my parents.

My mother was proud that I read encyclopedias, and in a house of bookworms it wasn't considered unusual. We generally got whatever books we asked for no matter what the genre.

Even my interest in sci-fi wasn't looked down on. Back in the 60 and 70s there was only two TV stations in Hobart so we didn't have that much choice about what to watch and Dr Who, Batman. Star Trek, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, Batman, Voyage to the Bottom of the sea were watched by most of the chiildren and I never felt an outsider because I watched those shows.

My interest in Star Trek, obviously, set me apart, and that—including all the nerdy hyper-enthusiasm stereotypical of our fine interest—for me began before kindergarten. Keep in mind also that this was the early 1970's. TOS wasn't even on the air except at odd hours.

I remember, at band camp—I mean—in kindergarten, we had to make these puppets out of paper and thumbtacks. They were supposed to be of people, with two movable arms. I just had to make a squid with ten movable arms. That would have been after seeing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Even earlier than that, in nursery school, which I went to when I was three, we had this graduation ceremony where everyone was to wear a cap and gown. I refused, because I was so proud of the new blazer jacket that my parents had gotten me, so I'm the only kid in the picture not wearing a cap and gown!

At the end of first grade, I was the first student to finish the second grade math workbook. I started after the putative smart kid and finished first with full credit, so at that point, I really knew I was different. My aptitude for and keen interest in mathematics set me apart from all my peers in public school, all the way through high school. That contributed to a sense of isolation which I still take steps to rectify today, each and every day. However, I consider all that an asset and something to love about myself.

Checking out all the books on rockets/space from the school library - in first grade. Being upset by the opening credits of Six Million Dollar Man. Not because Steve is in a horrible crash, but because they wreck that really cool space plane (HL-10 lifting body aircraft).

Reading. Lots and Lots of reading. Found Asimov around age 7 and went from there.

My grandma got me the condensed (or compact) OED when I was six or seven. I read it cover to cover. I often joke my vocabulary was better when I was in the second grade than it is now. It did give me the audacity to call one of my teachers senescent.

I was never a big collector of Trek/sci-fi paraphernalia, but I did have a model of the Ent-D that did full saucer-separ. I took it with my everywhere until one of my friends lost the stardrive in the woods.

I've also been fascinated with fighter planes all of my life. I use to doodle them all the time. My parents still have some of the drawings I did when I was in kindergarten.

Earliest signs I guess was Robotech and Transformers being my favorite series as a kid. Real big one was when I was nine and saw Jurassic Park and decided I wanted to read the book. After having finished that I've pretty much always had something to read, with very few "downtimes." Before that I also had always been fascinated by science books, but now it really exploded. And finally when Voyager started on Swedish TV when I was 13 the nerd side had really taken me.

I grabbed a pen as a toddler and never let go of it. I was drawing and drawing, managing a level of skill by the time I started school that made teachers mumble about art school - and then I started to read. EVERYTHING. I was pouring thought literature classics when everyone else were still preferring books with large print and lots of pictures. And I illustrated them.

That has always been the pattern. When I do something I do it incredibly thoroughly, being completely absorbed by what I do. I started horseback riding at 10 and was soon trying out Spanische Hofreitschule tricks with my horse. I learned to swim and swam 1½ mile a day that whole summer. I decided to learn to sew and got myself a tailor's degree. I got a job as a waitress and was restaurant manager after 1½ years. Decided to study garden design. Aced all my exams in plant knowledge. Started fiddling with html on Blogger and was soon building web sites with CSS.

If there ever was a proverb fitting me it has to be "Do or do not, there is no try."

I honestly think for me it did all start with Trek. My parents were into Trek and so I grew up watching it with them and when TNG started it was the same because there was a new Trek series out!

I also remember watching Twilight Zone with my parents and Dr. Who (that was my mom's favorite show, still is) and movies like V: The Final Battle.

So I guess I just grew up in a sci-fi household. I got into Jonny Quest when I was just out of high school because I came home one day and my mom was watching the marathon on cartoon network while doing bills and i was like "What's this?" When i saw it again a few weeks later I was hooked (and yes I was like 18 and I'm still a huge JQ fan at 35, even have some fanfics written on JQ out on the interwebs).

So I guess between my parents influence and my love of reading that how it started for me. I still played sports and did all that growing up as well. Also played "war" alot with my older brother and friends in the woods around our house and wow...here I am, 35 and in my second real war.

As was the case for many of us here, I read a lot, and was making my way through rather hefty adult novels by the time I was 7-8 (although I was much more into factual books than fiction, it must be said). I was also the designated "smart kid" throughout schooling, so I suppose it's hard not to fall into the nerd category when that's the case.

Earliest evidence? When I was 3-4, I became very interested in snooker - simply because the mathematics involved (with each colour ball being worth a certain amount of points) fascinated me. I loved watching matches and calculating scores. Combined with the fact that I could tell the time when I was 2, I suppose that early interest in mathematics was a sign of Nerdian heritage, although ironically maths would become my least favourite subject in later years.

When I was 5, I entered my dinosaur phase, which hasn't yet ended, and I pretty much devoured any and all books on prehistoric life. I would draw dinosaurs whenever I could, and I eventually wrote a dinosaur-based "choose-your-own-adventure" book, which if I may say so was quite impressive for my age (I put real effort into it). In the later years of primary school I moved onto science fiction and aliens (I recall drawing Hork-Bajir having seizures because one of the trees they feed on is the fit-fit. This was amusing to me).

I was always amazing my teachers by, well, being nerdy. The painting I created when I was 8 impressed my teacher so much she had my mother called in to gush over it (my mother still has it framed on the wall). When I started nursery at 4 I pointed out to the head-teacher that there were "three too many" candles on the cake celebrating the fourth birthdays of several of us children, which apparently really surprised her. Then there was my, er, "passion" for acting, which we know as the Sheep Incident.

Most notably, I never played sports at school, which is surely one of the definitive symptoms of youthful nerditude, particularly for boys.

Being one of those 7-8 people out of my entire grade school class to be pulled out in the middle of the day to be put into the "gifted" program. This continued through 6th grade, when the gifted program ceased to exist. At that point I was just in all the Honors and/or AP classes.

I was born with cerebral palsy, and was not very popular as a kid because of it, and was treated like shit by girls in my teens and all through my twenties also because of it. As a result, I was always socially akward, and tended (and still do) to have friends (what few would bother with me) in the same vein.

Even though my mom was the one who introduced me to Star Trek (she was an original Trekkie, and had me in 1970), between that and Star Wars, and the original Battlestar Galactica (which came out when I was seven and eight, respectively), I discovered an early love for sci-fi. As I entered my pre-teen years, I also discovered a love for prose sci-fi, also due in part to my mom, who taught me to read from an early age.

From all this, I figured I was a nerd from birth.

In short, it's all my mom's fault. And the girls who wouldn't date me.

Women......

Of course, THAT argument falls on it's ass when you consider the fact that my girlfriend is ALSO nerd with a love of sci-fi.

Me too. I'm sure the endless hours I spent in physical therapy only encouraged my nerdism. I don't remember much of it other than it was brutal.

It wasn't just the PT, on the even days of the week, I had to do fine-motor training which was worse. The doctors made it sound like it was going to be this great struggle in my life and forced me to do these ridiculous "activities." About the only thing it got me was, by the time I reached junior high, my penmanship was way better than anyone else's.

It was a bit of contention between my parents. My mom fussed over it endlessly while my dad called all those doctors a bunch of kooks. I was playing the piano by the time I was four and the guitar by six. My motor skills couldn't have been that bad.

The only real adverse effect it's had in my life was it kept me out on Annapolis despite my best attempts to lie about it.

Now really all I can say is I have a bit of a gait. People just think I walk funny. Most don't even notice. I suppose in hindsight, all that PT was worth it. But it was fucking hell for a toddler.

. . . I think one of the first signs for me was the fact that I chose to sit around and read all the encyclopedias.

Click to expand...

I did the same thing. Sometimes I'd take a volume of the World Book Encyclopedia into the bathroom with me, so the time I spent on the toilet wouldn't be wasted.

I was a confirmed sci-fi geek by the time I was 7 or so. I made a point of watching every science fiction movie or TV program. For my 10th birthday party, my mom ordered a custom-baked cake with the design of a rocket taking off on top.

. . .I've also been fascinated with fighter planes all of my life. I use to doodle them all the time.

Click to expand...

I used to doodle pictures of Supercar all the time. And robots. And Edsels. For some reason, I was fascinated by the Edsel. I mean, how many grade schoolers in the 1950s and early '60s were Edsel freaks?

I never recognized myself as one. I remember liking Devo, but then for awhile lots of people did. I knew the friends a played with didn't care much for me making spaceships out of anything I could find, but I did other stuff with them too. Later on I pretty much did everything "normally" in public while spending time in private with my interests. I never even met a "Trekkie" or at least any one else who admitted to be one till my early 20s. I went to a convention a couple of years later and met lots of Trekkies.